Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Danish Gardener

This is Jens Rasmussen, one of the few remaining gardeners in Tungelsta. He owns a nursery called Åvalla, which he runs with his wife Kirsten. I met him at the greenhouse in the park a while back. He and a few other members from the local historical association were busy repairing and painting the greenhouse. Jens told me that he had a few things he wanted to show me, so I paid him a visit the following day. This is his green bed. As he posed for the photo in the greenhouse he apologised for not being a sexy babe in a bikini, but you can't have everything! The other thing he wanted me to see was two Geranium maderense plants he bought last year. They costed him 800 SEK each, and both plants promptly died within one month! This obviously upset the professional gardener so he decided to get some seeds from the plants and now, one year later he has several hundred plants in a few of his greenhouses. He wanted me to get some cultivation tips online which I now have done. I took two plants with me and gave them to my mother so now there are at least three gardeners in Tungelsta growing this plant. The third is Ingemar at Blomorado. Sadly Åvalla will close now as Jens has decided to retire. When Åvalla is gone there will be only five or six nurseries open in Tungelsta. Not a very high number considering that there has been more than 100 nurseries here since my great grandfather J.F. Jansson opened the first one back in 1909.

Great photos of a sad story, Steffe, but a fantastic photo of Jens lying down on the job......There are still many greenhouses near me in Kalamazoo (Michigan) growing "bedding plants" that are shipped all over the US.